Secrecy just won a big victory in court — and New York taxpayers are the losers.

That’s the gist of an appellate panel’s ruling against the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center, which is seeking the names of retired teachers and the amount they collect in taxpayer-funded pensions.

For years, these figures were readily available. But in 2010, the police pension fund abruptly refused to turn the data over to the Empire Center, which was planning to post the info on its SeeThroughNY.com Web site. Two years later, the Teachers’ Retirement System also refused.

Thus far, the courts have consistently sided with the funds. So much for the people’s right to know how tax dollars are being spent.

The importance of individual cases is that they put a sharper focus on the costs and abuses of the pension system. For example, this was how The Post uncovered public-pension scams involving FDNY firefighters.

All this is bad enough. Worse is that it’s being done with the help of state Senate Republicans — who have refused to allow a vote on a bill clarifying the law to allow the names and amounts to be made public.

New Yorkers are left with this irony: The union-dominated Assembly actually passed the bill, 137-1, while the GOP-controlled Senate helped bottle it up. Is this really how the GOP hopes to improve its brand?